By the end of Thursday’s 10-2 loss to the Mariners, the Yankee Stadium crowd seemed almost too tired to boo.
There was plenty to be unhappy about, as Domingo German and the rest of the team had a complete meltdown against the Mariners.
“It was an awful day at the park for us,’’ Aaron Boone said after his team lost for the fifth time in seven games.
German had his second straight dreadful outing, as the right-hander allowed a career-high 10 runs, eight earned, and four homers in just 3 ¹/₃ innings.
It came after German was pounded by in Boston in his previous outing, as he’s given up a whopping 17 runs in just 5 ¹/₃ innings in the two outings.
But German wasn’t alone in his ineptitude.
The Yankees made three errors that led to a pair of unearned runs in an ugly third inning.
“We had a chance to sweep [the series] and we didn’t come close,’’ Anthony Rizzo said. “Domingo was out there, trying to give us some length and we boot balls behind him. That’s the frustrating part.”
And the lineup was no better. The Yankees didn’t get a hit against Seattle right-hander Bryan Woo until Gleyber Torres singled on a flare to right with one out in the sixth, drawing a sarcastic cheer from the crowd.
If nothing else, German was consistent on Thursday, rotten from beginning to end.
He gave up a one-out single to Julio Rodriguez and then hit Ty France with a pitch before Teoscar Hernandez’s RBI single gave Seattle a 1-0 lead.
A base hit by Cal Raleigh loaded the bases and pitching coach Matt Blake visited German.
The inning got worse from there, as Eugenio Suarez followed with a two-run double to left and former Yankee Mike Ford lined a sacrifice fly to right to make it 4-0 before German finally finished the 30-pitch inning.
In the second, German continued to get shelled, giving up a leadoff homer to Kolten Wong and then a colossal solo shot into the visitor’s bullpen in left-center to France, as the Yankees fell into a 6-0 hole.
That blast brought out the boo birds for German, but the nightmare wasn’t over for him or the Yankees.
German walked Suarez with one out in the third and Ford hit a chopper to third that Donaldson flubbed for an error.
With no one covering third on the play, Suarez tried to advance to third and Donaldson threw to German as the pitcher ran to the bag, but the ball deflected off German’s glove and went into Seattle’s dugout.
That allowed Suarez to score and, after a pair of lengthy reviews, Ford to move to third.
He scored on Jose Caballero’s sacrifice fly as the Yankees’ deficit climbed to 8-0.
And the Yankees weren’t done. Rizzo whiffed on Jarred Kelenic’s chopper to first for their third error of the inning.
German’s catastrophic night only ended after he gave up back-to-back homers to Hernandez and Raleigh with one out in the fourth and was replaced by Nick Ramirez, who tossed 2 ²/₃ scoreless innings.
As for the offense, they faced Woo, who struck out nine in 5 ²/₃ innings in his previous outing against the White Sox, and did nothing until the sixth.
Torres singled to right with one out and Rizzo followed with a drive that hit off the top of the wall in right. Just missing a two-run homer, it went for a long single to end Woo’s night.
The Yankees got on the board in the bottom of the ninth, when Isiah Kiner-Falefa, who pitched the last inning of the game, hit a two-run homer.
“We got punched in the mouth,’’ Boone said. “It’s not fun to go through something like that, especially at home. But it should also harden you and serve you well and sharpen those attentions moving forward.”
